Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.
Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
Whilst holiday videoing last week, I saw these two in the fjord near Alesund Norway. I think it's a razorbill and young. Am I right. If so, which race would they be? Thank you in advance for replies. Sorry about full zoom cropped images!
Torda rather than islandica in Norway. The only real differences are size related. The bill of the juvenile is rather more pointed and less bulbous than the adult making the head profile rather different. It does look very Little Auk like in those pictures though!
Now I didn't dare think it could be Little Auk, that's why I asked because it had passed my mind. Are we saying that it's definitely a young Razorbill then? And thanks to Andreadawn for race info.
If you are able to watch an older and wonderful BBC series, can't remember if it was The Life of Birds or similar, it showed young auks launching off the cliff face and gliding down to the water where the parents were waiting. There were a mixture of guillemots, Brunnichs mostly I think, but what was most evident is how small they were compared to the adult bird and did look like Little Auk at first glance. I'm sure this also applies to Razorbill.
Razorbill chicks leave their nest site and follow the adult male (occasionally the female) out to sea when they are about eighteen days old. Once on the water the chick is entirely reliant on the adult so tends to follow it fairly closely.
I think in the first photo it does look very Little Auk like though I think that is an optical illusion created by the angle it is holding its head at. The Collins Bird Guide has a picture of an adult and young Razorbill together showing how the chick can look very like Little Auk. In the pictures of Little Auk it also says to beware of confusion with baby Razorbill as does the Helm Seabirds book by Peter Harrison.